The "Chronicles of Lisianthus" is an up and coming medieval fantasy 2x2 VAR Region. Details are still rather sketchy, but let's just say it's built by roleplayers for roleplayers. People are welcome to stop on by to see the progress, though it will probably be two months before it's really ready for play.

Some unique features will be that we want to assist in promoting roleplay regions all across the metaverse and work on a sort of 'alliance' that is all inclusive of other medi-fantasy realms. There's not nearly enough roleplayers to fill a single region, and so we want to work with many other regions to promote intergrid roleplay.

I've been roleplaying for over 20 years, and 3 of those years was in Second Life, so I know quite a bit of the various forms of drama that have come about in my time. I really like the openness of the metaverse and have been making more a home here since my inception in Jan 2016. Lisianthus started in the Great Canadian Grid, but the project soon outgrew the single sim I had there and I was impressive with Kitely's interface, cloud technology, and prices.

The sim itself encompasses all that you'd expect to find in medi-fantasy worlds, and certainly there's inspiration from The Lord of the Rings series. We will have a website with forums coming soon as well, and one thing we will really specialize with the forums is the fact that you don't even need to be a part of OpenSim to join us for roleplay. Many of us old-time roleplayers grew up around D&D, RP chat rooms, and forums. It's hard to get people together at specific times sometimes to roleplay. This is also a way we'd like to bridge different grids (closed-entry and open-entry, SL/IW, etc.) and give people inspiration to perhaps come on over to the Hypergrid metaverse.

Further plans I have (which never cease to pile up, such is the effect of having a very active imagination and motivation) are to encourage more medieval fantasy merchants from IW and SL to venture over and sell their wares on the Kitely Market, thereby providing more for the rest of OpenSim.

We're here to have fun, and to escape the standard fare and drama in SL which has really left a sour taste in the mouths of many roleplayers (see a forum post in the Roleplay thread that really goes into detail about this). While we do support ALL grids, including Second Life, it's been very easy to feel at home in Kitely and so I hope that Lisianthus will be a place for people to enjoy some nice scenery and perhaps tell some stories through roleplay.

Everyone has a story to tell...
Lisianthus was created with the wish to provide a backdrop for anyone interested in living out their fantasies, evolving plots and simply spinning tales for the enjoyment of the community and anyone interesting in medieval-fantasy.

Humans, Elves, Daemons, Merfolk, Dragons, Dwarves, Faeriefolk, Hobbits... the possibility to explore and design characters, breathe life into them or introduce a new race into The Chronicles of Lisianthus community is our plan with the creation of the region and cross-grid roleplay will continue to be an active part of our virtual life.
(I also enjoy my role as a Maia in The River Lands Community on GCG).

And for those less interested in medi-fantasy roleplay, the region aims to captivate the attention of HG-visitors and entice people to visit often to explore and discover new surprises hidden in every corner (and the sky!).

I'd love to hear feedback from visitors too and hope to be online to greet as many visitors to Lisianthus as possible.

Seems like a good time for an update! Ebie and I have been working tirelessly on the sim and we've had wonderful support from many people in Kitely and outside in the OS world, and even in Second Life. To that end, what started as a relatively simple project on a 2x2 VAR Region has expanded far greater than I could have imagined. Many who know me in SL know that when I dream, I dream big. It's extremely easy for me to take on far more than I originally intended. That's part of the excitement of creating a world based off of a dream, isn't it?

Our world has transitioned into basically a 6x6 region built atop a 2x2 region (pics are forthcoming, but we'd like to get more work done first). As they say, the sky's the limits. Well in our case, we've been using the sky to our advantage to create worlds within a world. We decided that one 2x2 ground platform could not provide us quite the imaginative world that was brewing in our heads. At the same time, we didn't want a 4x4 sim because that would increase lag considerably. So instead, we have teleporters that transition people between worlds - yes, there's literally NINE platforms of 2x2 space, each with a part of Lisianthus, and what I would consider to be a world within a world. (I know we are going to hit our prim cap really soon, one thing SL taught me was to maximize prim efficiency though! I had a friend who was able to build a homestead RP sim with 3750 prims and it looked amazing, I thought for sure it must have been a 15,000 prim full region.)

We've gone through a few redesigned, have added a load of new content thanks primarily to the talented work provided to us from the Kitely merchants. In many ways, we've barely gotten our feet wet. We do not expect to be ready by the start of the new year, but we're taking our time with this, and enjoying that time. We assure you that the results will be well worth it and we think in the end you will find one of the most beautiful and diverse worlds in Kitely, and in OpenSim (and that's a bold statement, there's a LOT of great creative worlds out there, I do not deny that in the least).

Additionally, we're not just here to build our own sim, but we want to lead people to other worlds too. There's always been "sim loyalty" in SL, but people are more open to explore and to be a part of multiple communities in OS, I feel. While I'm certainly in this to try to create the best sim and to be rather popular at that, I don't want to be the only option out there. Even while Ebie and I build, there are many other groups and sims sprouting up. There have been many attempts in the past as well, evidence by scouting this forum and reading blogs and websites. That's why we have a HUB area in our Welcome Lobby that directs people to other "must see" medieval fantasy/historical RP sims or medieval fantasy/historical inspired worlds. At some point if I find the time, I would like to branch out and attempt to promote other genres of RP sims too with an all-inclusive website. We have even been cross-linking with a few other sims across OpenSim, including the River Lands in the Great Canadian Grid, and Neiferleaf by Roland Francis.

I'm doing a lot of behind the scenes work as well trying to figure out the foundation by which the sim will rest on in terms of how things work in roleplay, and such. The goal really is to bridge worlds, and not necessarily just in-world, but out of world too. That's why I feel a balance of both is so critical. One of the beauties to me about OS is that we really have to take what we can get, whereas in a place like Second Life, there's content by the bucketful available, so people don't have to use quite as much 'imagination' to visually make their dreams or stories come to life. As an 'old school' roleplayer who grew up on using whatever I could find (like a cardboard box and some paper) to create that impenetrable fortress, it's a bit easier for me to look past the shinies of mesh bodies, and having incredible content available all over the place that simply overwhelms me. I can do this because I remember how things used to be and sometimes I long for those days again. I'm still in SL quite a bit in fact, and I do love all the new content coming out, but it comes down to simply not wanting to pay 300 USD for a sim, no matter how gorgeous and "better" SL is. I'm not an anti-SL person actually, but I simply cannot make the facet of creating a medieval fantasy sim come to life there with the prices offered, no matter how many prims are available and no matter how beautiful the content is.

It affords me the time to strike up friendships and to support the many content creators we DO have in OpenSIm, many of the best in Kitely who believe in the Hypergrid as I do. Who despite the different destines of different grids we continue to embrace as one big family.

So yeah, getting off topic a bit here, but, much of the passion Elbe and I feel as we are creating this sim is providing a place, not just for us, or Kitely residents, but for EVERYONE to live out their dreams just as we have our own dreams that we are striving to build into reality. I'll have another update fairly soon, but I leave interested people with a map that really showcases how large our sim is becoming. I hope you will stop by and check it out as your own pace soon, again, pardon our dust, we're working hard! Time will tell what our efforts prove, but I'm just enjoying the experience that I otherwise would never have had in any other world and am so thankful I can fulfill it in Kitely, or at least try!

It is so easy to get spoiled by all the land we can get for such low pricing..and prims! Nowadays I can't imagine being so restricted as SL is/was to me, and several other closed commercial grids I have ventured into.

I like it that you see the hypergrid in collaboration terms, that is much of its best use to me...and all the free content!

An update! We expect the bulk of our work to finish by Feb. 7th and we're hoping to really start the bulk of our roleplay storyline by that point. Why Feb 7th? Well... it's my real life birthday, so it seems like quite a present not just for me but for everyone. We will most likely not be fully finished (I say this because I feel a sim like this or any RP sim for that matter is never truly 'finished') I believe we'll be close enough.

Additionally, we are going to open up a second hub that showcases roleplay opportunities in Kitely, regardless of genre. Many wonderful people have talented creations that are well worth showcasing to hypergridders, such as Moonrise Azalee's "Raven's Reef", Mike Lorrey's "Naboo", and many, many others (I've barely scratched the surface).

On a side note, I am also in talks with some talented medi-fantasy clothing makers and will be working with them to hopefully have them showcase their wares on Kitely Market.

It's shaping up to be a great 2017 for us and we're pretty excited for the future. If all goes as planned, you can expect a few more updates before opening day. Until then, keep creating!

I'm happy to report that we're now officially open. While we're not completely done (who isn't, really?), we've done enough that we're ready to consider ourselves 'open'. As always, find more details on our website and we hope to see you all in world.

Vedui!
After months of creating countless realms and laying the groundwork for a myriad of adventures just waiting to be told, we are thrilled to celebrate the official opening of Lisianthus!
A warm welcome is extended to visitors from Kitely and the entire open sim community and we look forward to weaving our roleplay stories within the realm and hopefully also including and extending our Roleplay with other immersive regions throughout the metaverse.
Be warned... Lisianthus is comprised of a diverse array of "showplaces"! You can discover the medieval flair of the Plutocracy of Silverwind or beyond its walls, come face to face with dragons or forces of Darkness across the swamp towards Blackmoor. The Elves remain aloof among their woodland sanctuaries, but stumble upon the Hobbit villages of GreenFields or Bywater and a path towards the Elves is never far...
Alas, danger is ever present within Lisianthus as Drow and other Evildoers cast their long shadow from Vhaerun, while the Dwarves mine diligently in their hidden snowy kingdom, rarely concerning themselves with the joys or fears of mortal men and women.
Humans, Elves, Gypsies, Swamp dwellers, Hobbits, Dwarves, Dragon Clans, Merfolk, Drow ~ heroic deeds or dangers unnumbered... Lisianthus is a canvas to inspire fantasy and creativity.

We hope to see you there soon, safe paths, Elbereth

PS.: Beware of the Fae (forever up to no good!)
PPS.: For those not favoured with the patience of Elves, it takes a while for Lisianthus to appear while waiting at the Kitely transfer station... unavoidable due to the sheer size of the realm and near 60,000 prims that were used in its creation. We believe it's worth the wait and sincerely hope you do too!